ATLANTA — After plenty of mistakes in his first four games, Geno Smith suddenly looked like a wily ol’ veteran for the New York Jets.

The rookie quarterback threw three touchdown passes, didn’t turn the ball over at all and guided the Jets on a clutch drive that set up Nick Folk’s winning field goal on the final play, giving New York a 30-28 victory over the struggling Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.

Well, it’s that time of year again, when Americans across the land take an extended break from being productive at work, paying attention to trouble spots overseas, or noticing they have a family.

Our long national nightmare is over.

Since early February, we’ve had to get by with such mundane pursuits as pretending we care about politics, spending quality time with the kids, or — gasp! — watching the occasional hockey game (a caveat: this usually occurred only when flipping through channels in a futile bid to find someone yelling about Tim Tebow).

John Carlos took a stand for human rights during the Mexico City Olympics that resonates to this day.

Almost 45 years ago, Carlos climbed on the medals podium along with Tommie Smith. Each thrust a black-gloved fist toward the sky. Peter Norman stood in front of them, stoically wearing a badge that showed his support for the African-American cause. Let’s hope the athletes of the world are prepared to make a similar satement at the Sochi Games.

They’re the best hope of getting through to the Russians that their anti-gay law is unacceptable.

Franklin claimed her record sixth gold medal of the world championships Sunday night, swimming the leadoff leg for the Americans in the 400-meter medley relay. She gave the U.S. a slight lead, and her teammates — Jessica Hardy, Dana Vollmer and Megan Romano — made it look easy from there. The winning time was 3 minutes, 53.23 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of runner-up Australia.

BARCELONA, Spain — Ryan Lochte feels like himself again. Looks more like himself, too, with that gold medal around his neck.

Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky have felt this way all along. They’re piling up so much gold they might need bigger suitcases to get home.

Lochte bounced back from a disappointing start to the world swimming championships, showing he still knows how to touch the wall first with his victory in the 200-meter individual medley Thursday night.

BARCELONA, Spain — Missy Franklin climbed to the top of the podium to collect a prize she really wanted.

That bid for eight gold medals?

It can wait.

Franklin held off hard-charging Federica Pelligrini to win the 200-meter freestyle on Wednesday night, the 18-year-old American claiming her third victory of the world championships and justifying the decision to cut back her program in Barcelona.

By the end of the night, the U.S. team was awash in medals at the world swimming championships.

Franklin and Ledecky each won her second gold medal of the meet, Matt Grevers led a 1-2 American finish in the backstroke, and there was plenty of reason to celebrate for the red, white and blue on Tuesday.

“We’ve had an absolutely incredible evening,” Franklin said. “I’m so proud of all my teammates.”